In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Shameik Moore returns alongside Hailee Steinfeld as Miles Morales/Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman. After spending nearly a year and a half in Brooklyn, New York’s web-slinger Miles Morales is nearing the first steps of adulthood, including planning his collegiate future. Following his accidental creation of a villain hellbent on revenge, Miles is thrust into a multiversal adventure where existence as he knows it is threatened once again.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a 2023 animated superhero film and sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It is produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is currently in theaters nationwide.

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for both ‘Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may be present in this review.

Now fifteen years old, since the events of “Into the Spider-Verse,” Miles Morales has better understood being a superhero and crime fighter. Having gained much confidence since the death of his Peter/Spider-Man and meeting Peter B. Parker & Gwen Stacy, Miles has felt more in tune with being his universe’s Spider-Man. He misses those he bonded with on his last adventure, most notably Gwen, and becomes slightly obsessed with multiversal travel. His obsessions make him an enemy to the entire Spider-Verse as he tries to fight fate.

THE GOOD: A little over a year has passed since Miles Morales became the Spider-Man of Brooklyn, New York. While still relatively young, Miles has gotten much more experienced with his abilities. One day while on his way to school, for a meeting to discuss his academic future, he encounters a new, unique villain who can travel between planes of existence. During the battle, the villain going by Spot reveals that Miles had a hand in his creation, and he now seeks revenge. Spot accidentally kicks himself into his portal hole, destroying Miles and Officer Jefferson Davis. Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman recounts her back story when she first became Spider-Woman and how Peter Parker turned himself into her universe’s Lizard, where he dies in an incident seeking revenge for his bullying. Her father, Officer George Stacy, barely witnesses the event and believes Spider-Woman to be responsible for Peter’s death leading to her becoming an enemy of New York.

While on patrol, Gwen encounters an alternate-universe version of Vulture and fights him, leading to a confrontation with George, where she reveals her identity. Though shocked, George continues his pursuit of her. Gwen, in disbelief, attempts to run but is saved by Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 and Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (who’s pregnant). Miguel and Jessica inform Gwen of a Society of Spider-People, a dimension that houses spider-powered individuals across the multiverse. She leaves with them after saying goodbye to her father. Sometime later, Gwen reunites with Miles, and the two catch as Gwen secretly tracks Spot. After finding Spot, she’s forced to leave him behind, but Miles tracks and follows her into the dimension Spot was currently in, which is an alt version of Mumbattan, India. Miles meets Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man and Hobbie Brown/Spider-Punk, who both immediately like him. Miles sees a vision of Spot killing his father before saving the father of Pavitr’s girlfriend, a police captain. 

The Spider-Society with Miguel and Jessica shows up as Mumbattan begins to collapse on itself due to a canon event being disrupted. They send Miles, Gwen, and Hobbie back to Earth-928, where the Spider-Society HQ is located, and inform Miles of their work. Miles reunites with Peter B. Parker, who introduces him to his infant daughter May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl. Miguel explains what canon events are mainly that in every universe, one consistent for Spider-Man is that a police captain close to them dies. An interruption or change of this could destroy the universe and even the greater multiverse. Miles refuses to believe there’s no way to change the canon events, but Gwen and the other Spider-People try to convince him, revealing they’ve all succumbed to Miguel’s warning. Feeling betrayed, Miles continues his quest to save his father but is captured by Miguel, disappointing Gwen, who protests. As Gwen argues with Miguel & Jessica, Miles uses a new power (with earlier knowledge gained from Hobbie) to escape his capture and is pursued by the Spider-People.

Following an intense chase, Miguel once again captures Miles and, in a rage, reveals that Miles was the original anomaly that led to everything. Miguel states that the spider that bit Miles came from a dimension with no Spider-Man and that he was never meant to be a Spider-Man. Miles escapes again with the reluctant help of Margo Kress/Spider-Woman, this time leaving for another universe. An angered Miguel removes Gwen from Spider-Society and sends her back to her universe. Gwen reconciles with George, who reveals he’s quit his upcoming promotion as a police captain and as a police officer and no longer wishes to pursue Spider-Woman. Gwen notes this, realizing canon events can be safely disrupted without consequences. Miles heads to his apartment, believing he’s back in his universe, where he informs his mother that he’s Spider-Man. His mother is confused as she does not know who Spider-Man is, stunning Miles.

Miles is later captured by an alt version of his uncle Aaron Davis who reveals that Jefferson died in this universe. Miles deduces that he’s currently on Earth-42, where his spider came from, and is interrogated by Davis. Miles is then confronted by Earth-42’s Miles, who has become the Prowler and shows no remorse for Miles explaining his attempts to save his father. Jessica, Miguel, and Ben Reiley/Spider-Man head to Earth-1610 to look for Miles. Gwen arrives with a watch left by Hobbie and ensures Miles’ parents that everything will be ok. She creates a team of Spider-People consisting of Peter B. Parker, Mayday, Peni Parker, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir, Pavitr, Hobbie, and Margo, who go off to help Miles as Jessica watches.

Almost immediately Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse wants you to know that even though it’s a sequel to “Into the Spider-Verse,” it wants to be something different and a bit more complimentary to it. The opening scenes with Gwen Stacy over Miles Morales is an excellent way of establishing that, at least presently, Miles is no longer the only main character. While we only spend a little bit of time with the backstories of Miguel and Jessica (which I’m expecting more of in the follow-up), they get enough screen time to detail their importance as characters in the film to the audience. The film’s heart focuses on Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, who are dealing with the fallout from the first movie and current developments in their own lives. Comparatively, Gwen and Miles struggle with their secret as Spider-Woman and Spider-Man, respectively, and maintaining that secrecy to their families. Contrastly, Miles, who typically hates lying, wants to tell his parents about his identity eventually but fears their reaction. In a compromising situation, Gwen felt forced to disclose her identity as Spider-Woman to her father with a less-than-ideal response. This highlights just some of the unique differences and similarities Miles and Gwen have throughout the film and their lives.

The fantastic original soundtrack was once again composed by Daniel Pemberton, whose music brings every scene and character to life as they act or emote throughout the film. Some tracks are remixes of past Spider-Man themes, including a slight reference to the Spider-Man Unlimited theme song for Spider-Man 2099. Even with the bit of fanservice provided for a good portion of the film’s sound, Pemberton is talented enough to bring originality to these tracks. You would only recognize familiar sound bites if you were purposely looking for them. The commercial soundtrack featured Spider-Man-themed tracks featuring artists such as Lil’ Wayne, Swae Lee, Lil’ Uzivert, and Offset, among others. Funnily enough, only Wayne & Lee carry over from the first film’s soundtrack. The other artists are brand new, and their music hits just as well as the previous soundtrack. Nearly all of this will eventually find its way to your playlist. 

The animation in this film has me struggling to find words for just how impressive it is. I remember when Into the Spider-Verse came and went, people were touting it as a trendsetter in animation. Here we are five years later, and that statement has never been more true than it is today. So many animated films took inspiration in style from Into the Spider-Verse, and you can rarely escape its influence in the field, even now with some upcoming movies scheduled for release. The people at Sony Pictures Animation somehow found a way to make the sequel to an already inspirational film that much more inspirational by upping the possibilities of what animation is capable of with today’s technology. Being backed by the scribe talents of Phil Lord & Christopher Miller make for a complete package in nearly every way imaginable. The Spider-Verse franchise now reminds me a lot of the 2011 Planet of the Apes reboot. That franchise had a solid initial showing that surprised many people and kept going in that direction. This is where I see ‘Spider-Verse’ landing as the third film is released, but much more universal in opinions.

THE BAD: Initially marketed as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part 1, this was later changed with the confirmed third film, “Beyond the Spider-Verse.” The change was likely due to audiences feeling like the second film ending on a cliffhanger lead-in was in poor taste. Sony Pictures Animation still chose to end the movie on a cliffhanger leading into the third film regardless, even with the backlash. Not really a huge issue, but given the scale of the story they were going for, they didn’t have much choice. Though I’m sure, there was some workaround that could have been done to provide a satisfying ending and let fans know that the sequel would soon follow. It probably would have been better to end with Gwen forming her team and Earth-42 Mrs. Morales confusing Miles with her lack of knowledge of Spider-Man.  There’s some silly writing in the film, like a pregnant Jessica being heavily active in combat throughout much of the movie. However, when you consider these are superheroes who can survive falls from skyscrapers, it honestly feels just as silly to complain about the logic behind the human body.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an impressive sequel to an already remarkable predecessor that continues to push the envelope of what an animated film is capable of. With a unique blend of different animation styles to represent its core scenes and a multitude of Spider-People, it often goes above and beyond the usual sequel motif of “Just be bigger.” Instead, it focuses on what it can do to separate itself from “Into the Spider-Verse” to feel like a Spider-Man film of its own making, like Miles is attempting to do with the Spider-Man moniker himself. Otaku Dome gives Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse a 90 out of 100.